South Vietnam, North Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, South China Sea, Gulf of Thailand
November 1, 1955 - April 30, 1975
By Chaplin Chip
November 1, 1955 - April 30, 1975
By Chaplin Chip
The United States has been involved in many conflicts and Wars. WWII began 12-1941 and ended 8 -1945. This was a decisive victory for the USA. Because of help from our Country after the end of WWII both Japan and Germany have become dominant industrial countries. In the early 1950s, we went to war with North Korea, Known as the (forgotten war). Once again with the help of our country South Korea has become a successful industrial Nation.
In the 1960s we went to war with North Vietnam. We left this country before our time. Although they have some industries, they pale in size as to Japan. Germany and South Korea.
The difference is that in WWII, and Korea, in both wars we completed our mission. In Vietnam, we were not allowed to finish the job. April 30, 2025 marks 50 years since the end of the Vietnam war.
The following is a history of the Vietnam War: (Abridged)
By 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower had pledged firm support to South Vietnam by provided funding, armaments, and training to South Vietnam’s government and military since Vietnam’s partition into the communist North and the democratic South in 1954. Tensions escalated into armed conflict between the two sides, and in 1961 U.S. President John F. Kennedy chose to expand the military aid program. The terms of this expansion included yet more funding and arms, but a key alteration was the commitment of U.S. soldiers to the region. Kennedy’s expansion stemmed in part from Cold War-era fears about the “domino theory”: if communism took hold in Vietnam, it would topple democracies throughout the whole of Southeast Asia, it was thought. By 1962, the U.S. military presence in South Vietnam had reached some 9,000 troops, compared with fewer than 800 during the 1950s.
Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, but his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, continued the work that Kennedy had started. Johnson raised the number of South Vietnam deployments to 23,000 U.S. soldiers by the end of his first year in office. Political turbulence there and two alleged North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. naval vessels spurred Johnson to demand the passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964. It granted him broad latitude in handling the struggle against communism in Southeast Asia.
After North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the U.S.S. Maddox and U.S.S. Turner Joy in the Gulf of Tonkin, President Johnson ordered the retaliatory bombing of military targets in North Vietnam. Congress soon passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave Johnson broad war-making powers.
Operation Rolling Thunder was a bombing campaign which began on March 2, 1965, partly in response to a Vietcong attack on a U.S. air base at Pleiku. President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration believed that heavy and sustained bombing might encourage North Vietnamese leaders to accept the non-Communist government in South Vietnam, and they wanted to reduce North Vietnam’s ability to produce and transport supplies to aid the Viet Cong insurgency.
Shortly after Operation Rolling Thunder began, President Johnson committed the first U.S. ground troops to the Vietnam War. Although their initial mission was to defend air bases in South Vietnam that were being used in the bombing campaign, the troops’ roles soon expanded to include engaging the Viet Cong in active combat.
The Battle of Khe Sanh Combat Base, Quang Tri province, began on January 21, 1968, when forces from the People’s Army of North Vietnam (PAVN) carried out a massive artillery bombardment on the U.S. Marine garrison at Khe Sanh, located in South Vietnam near the border with Laos. For the next 77 days, U.S. Marines fought off an intense siege of the garrison, one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.
The Tet Offensive was a coordinated series of North Vietnamese attacks on more than 100 cities and outposts in South Vietnam. The offensive was an attempt to incite rebellion among the South Vietnamese population and encourage the United States to scale back its involvement in the Vietnam War. Though U.S. and South Vietnamese forces managed to hold off the attacks, news coverage of the massive offensive shocked the American public and eroded support for the war effort. Despite heavy casualties, North Vietnam achieved a strategic victory with the Tet Offensive, as the attacks marked a turning point in the Vietnam War and the beginning of the slow, painful American withdrawal from the region.
The Tet Offensive included a battle unlike anything the U.S. military had seen up to that point in Vietnam: the fight for Hue City. In this month-long battle, U.S. Marines fought house to house through the streets of Vietnam's ancient capital, suffering many casualties while inflicting even more. In South Vietnam, the Marines had become used to fighting across open fields and paddies near the coast and in the mountains and jungles of the interior. The Battle for Hue City, however, thrust the Marines into an urban operation vastly different from anything they had previously encountered.
Operation Menu was the code name of a covert United States Strategic Air Command (SAC) bombing campaign conducted in eastern Cambodia. The bombing began on the night of March 18th, 1969 with a raid by 60 B-52 Stratofortress bombers. Although the aircrews were briefed that their mission was to take place in South Vietnam, 48 of the bombers were diverted across the Cambodian border and dropped 2,400 tons of bombs. In all, SAC flew 3,800 B-52 sorties and dropped 108,823 tons of ordnance during Operation Menu.
The United States, South Vietnam, Viet Cong, and North Vietnam formally signed “An Agreement Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam” in Paris. The settlement included a cease-fire throughout Vietnam. In addition, the United States agreed to the withdrawal of all U.S. troops and advisors (totaling about 23,700 personnel) and the dismantling of all U.S. bases within 60 days. In return, the North Vietnamese agreed to release all prisoners of war, including U.S. POWs. Both sides agreed to the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Laos and Cambodia and the prohibition of bases in and troop movements through these countries. It was agreed that the DMZ (demilitarized zone) at the 17th Parallel would remain a provisional dividing line, with eventual reunification of the country through peaceful means.
Two months after the signing of the Vietnam peace agreement, the last U.S. combat troops left South Vietnam as Hanoi freed the remaining American prisoners of war held in North Vietnam. America’s direct eight-year intervention in the Vietnam War was at an end. In Saigon, some 7,000 U.S. Department of Defense civilian employees remained behind to aid South Vietnam in conducting what looked to be a fierce and ongoing war with Communist North Vietnam.
Operation Frequent Wind was the final phase in the evacuation of American civilians and "at-risk" Vietnamese from Saigon, South Vietnam before the takeover of the city by the North Vietnamese Army in the Fall of Saigon. It was carried out on April 29-30, 1975. More than 7,000 people were evacuated by helicopter.
But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31.
Now we have a problem in trying to make our power credible, and Vietnam looks like the place.” —President John Kennedy in June 1961.
GOD BLESS AMERICA
Chaplain Chip Hanson
In the 1960s we went to war with North Vietnam. We left this country before our time. Although they have some industries, they pale in size as to Japan. Germany and South Korea.
The difference is that in WWII, and Korea, in both wars we completed our mission. In Vietnam, we were not allowed to finish the job. April 30, 2025 marks 50 years since the end of the Vietnam war.
The following is a history of the Vietnam War: (Abridged)
By 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower had pledged firm support to South Vietnam by provided funding, armaments, and training to South Vietnam’s government and military since Vietnam’s partition into the communist North and the democratic South in 1954. Tensions escalated into armed conflict between the two sides, and in 1961 U.S. President John F. Kennedy chose to expand the military aid program. The terms of this expansion included yet more funding and arms, but a key alteration was the commitment of U.S. soldiers to the region. Kennedy’s expansion stemmed in part from Cold War-era fears about the “domino theory”: if communism took hold in Vietnam, it would topple democracies throughout the whole of Southeast Asia, it was thought. By 1962, the U.S. military presence in South Vietnam had reached some 9,000 troops, compared with fewer than 800 during the 1950s.
Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, but his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, continued the work that Kennedy had started. Johnson raised the number of South Vietnam deployments to 23,000 U.S. soldiers by the end of his first year in office. Political turbulence there and two alleged North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. naval vessels spurred Johnson to demand the passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964. It granted him broad latitude in handling the struggle against communism in Southeast Asia.
After North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the U.S.S. Maddox and U.S.S. Turner Joy in the Gulf of Tonkin, President Johnson ordered the retaliatory bombing of military targets in North Vietnam. Congress soon passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave Johnson broad war-making powers.
Operation Rolling Thunder was a bombing campaign which began on March 2, 1965, partly in response to a Vietcong attack on a U.S. air base at Pleiku. President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration believed that heavy and sustained bombing might encourage North Vietnamese leaders to accept the non-Communist government in South Vietnam, and they wanted to reduce North Vietnam’s ability to produce and transport supplies to aid the Viet Cong insurgency.
Shortly after Operation Rolling Thunder began, President Johnson committed the first U.S. ground troops to the Vietnam War. Although their initial mission was to defend air bases in South Vietnam that were being used in the bombing campaign, the troops’ roles soon expanded to include engaging the Viet Cong in active combat.
The Battle of Khe Sanh Combat Base, Quang Tri province, began on January 21, 1968, when forces from the People’s Army of North Vietnam (PAVN) carried out a massive artillery bombardment on the U.S. Marine garrison at Khe Sanh, located in South Vietnam near the border with Laos. For the next 77 days, U.S. Marines fought off an intense siege of the garrison, one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.
The Tet Offensive was a coordinated series of North Vietnamese attacks on more than 100 cities and outposts in South Vietnam. The offensive was an attempt to incite rebellion among the South Vietnamese population and encourage the United States to scale back its involvement in the Vietnam War. Though U.S. and South Vietnamese forces managed to hold off the attacks, news coverage of the massive offensive shocked the American public and eroded support for the war effort. Despite heavy casualties, North Vietnam achieved a strategic victory with the Tet Offensive, as the attacks marked a turning point in the Vietnam War and the beginning of the slow, painful American withdrawal from the region.
The Tet Offensive included a battle unlike anything the U.S. military had seen up to that point in Vietnam: the fight for Hue City. In this month-long battle, U.S. Marines fought house to house through the streets of Vietnam's ancient capital, suffering many casualties while inflicting even more. In South Vietnam, the Marines had become used to fighting across open fields and paddies near the coast and in the mountains and jungles of the interior. The Battle for Hue City, however, thrust the Marines into an urban operation vastly different from anything they had previously encountered.
Operation Menu was the code name of a covert United States Strategic Air Command (SAC) bombing campaign conducted in eastern Cambodia. The bombing began on the night of March 18th, 1969 with a raid by 60 B-52 Stratofortress bombers. Although the aircrews were briefed that their mission was to take place in South Vietnam, 48 of the bombers were diverted across the Cambodian border and dropped 2,400 tons of bombs. In all, SAC flew 3,800 B-52 sorties and dropped 108,823 tons of ordnance during Operation Menu.
The United States, South Vietnam, Viet Cong, and North Vietnam formally signed “An Agreement Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam” in Paris. The settlement included a cease-fire throughout Vietnam. In addition, the United States agreed to the withdrawal of all U.S. troops and advisors (totaling about 23,700 personnel) and the dismantling of all U.S. bases within 60 days. In return, the North Vietnamese agreed to release all prisoners of war, including U.S. POWs. Both sides agreed to the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Laos and Cambodia and the prohibition of bases in and troop movements through these countries. It was agreed that the DMZ (demilitarized zone) at the 17th Parallel would remain a provisional dividing line, with eventual reunification of the country through peaceful means.
Two months after the signing of the Vietnam peace agreement, the last U.S. combat troops left South Vietnam as Hanoi freed the remaining American prisoners of war held in North Vietnam. America’s direct eight-year intervention in the Vietnam War was at an end. In Saigon, some 7,000 U.S. Department of Defense civilian employees remained behind to aid South Vietnam in conducting what looked to be a fierce and ongoing war with Communist North Vietnam.
Operation Frequent Wind was the final phase in the evacuation of American civilians and "at-risk" Vietnamese from Saigon, South Vietnam before the takeover of the city by the North Vietnamese Army in the Fall of Saigon. It was carried out on April 29-30, 1975. More than 7,000 people were evacuated by helicopter.
But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31.
Now we have a problem in trying to make our power credible, and Vietnam looks like the place.” —President John Kennedy in June 1961.
GOD BLESS AMERICA
Chaplain Chip Hanson